IAP 2015 Activities by Sponsor - Architecture

Rhett Nichols, Alumna Courses 4 & 9: S.B. & B.S.A.D.

Jan/28

Wed

05:30PM-08:30PM

7-429 (Long Lounge)

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

A fun and interesting introduction to the range of topics in Psychology and Architecture.

The class will consist of 2.5 hours of 15-20min talks, with a break in the middle, and time for questions and discussion afterward.

Speakers will present short introductions to psychological studies applied to architecture, and discuss architecture’s effects on psychology.

Speakers & Schedule:

Introduction - Gerhard van der Linde

Behavior Settings, Then and Now
Dak Kopec, Boston Architectural College

Energy Use in Buildings, Beyond Physics
Leon R. Glicksman, MIT

Two Theories about Why Edges and Patterns Matter in the Built Environment
Ann Sussman, Fitchburg State University

* Break (15 minutes)

Place Attachment for Promoting a Sustainable Urban Future
Robert L. Ryan, UMass Amherst

A Brutal Introduction to the Neuroscience of Space
Zuzanna Kłyszejko, NYU

Panel Q & A

 

Contact Rhett, krnichols@gmail.com with questions.
No advance sign-up necessary; no enrollment limit.
Organizers: Rhett Nichols, MIT S.B. & B.S.A.D. ‘04 & Gerhard van der Linde MIT M.Arch. 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Rhett Nichols, 7-337, 617-253-7386, krnichols@gmail.com

Cynthia Stewart, Docent, Boston Public Library

Jan/24

Sat

01:00PM-02:00PM

BPL in Copley Sq.

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/19
Limited to 20 participants

Come tour the Boston Public Library McKim Building in Copley Square, one of America’s architectural treasures.  Designed by Charles Follen McKim in the Renaissance Revival style, the building was proclaimed “a palace for the people” when it opened its doors in 1895.  In addition to mosaics, murals and wall paintings, you’ll see features made of 20 varieties of marble.  The tour will end with a visit to the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.

Note: Meet inside the Dartmouth Street entrance to the Boston Public Library

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Cynthia Stewart, 7-337, 617-253-4408, stewart@mit.edu

Julia Litman-Cleper, SMArchS Degree Candidate

Enrollment: Sign-up by January 14
Sign-up by 01/14
Limited to 10 participants
Attendance: Participants at individual sessions, but participation is required!

This course will introduce easily accessible computer vision, augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. We also look into avant-garde dance and music and contemporary projects in the context of alternative ways of interfacing with computers.  Choosing the system of their preference, students will program and choreograph their own interactive performance and we will collaboratively present the work as a final mixed-reality performance event.  No previous expertise is necessary.

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Julia Litman-Cleper, julialc4@mit.edu

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Aggmented Reality and Dance

	Jan/15	Thu	05:00PM-07:00PM	7-429 Long Lounge, Bring your computer
	Jan/22	Thu	05:00PM-07:00PM	7-429 Long Lounge, Bring your computer
	Jan/29	Thu	05:00PM-07:00PM	7-429 Long Lounge, Bring your computer

Julia Litman-Cleper - SMArchS Degree Candidate

Kiarash Adl

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

This class is a chance for artists and art enthusiasts to get together and discuss essays on contermporary art and to critique each other's works. 

The class will consist of 4 meetings and will include seminar and critique sessions where students will get a chance to discuss assigned readings on postmodern and contemporary art, present their own work for critique and get feedback from their peers. 

It is recommended that students sign up ahead of time to get familiar with the readings so that they can contribute to quality discussions and participate in critique sessions. 

Sign-up Form: http://goo.gl/forms/rs8YqkBhgy

Students are welcome to attend individual meetings though attending all or most meetings will result in a more comprehensive experience.

The class is held at Media Lab/room E15-207

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Kiarash Adl, kiarash@mit.edu

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Seminar & Critique

Jan/14

Wed

03:00PM-05:00PM

Media Lab/E15-207

Kiarash Adl

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Seminar & Critique

Jan/20

Tue

03:00PM-05:00PM

Media Lab/E15-207

Kiarash Adl

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Critique

Jan/23

Fri

03:00PM-06:00PM

Media Lab/E15-207

Kiarash Adl

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Trip to the Institute of Contemporary Ar

Jan/29

Thu

03:00PM-06:00PM

will be announced

Kiarash Adl

Caitlin Mueller, Assistant Professor

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/09
Limited to 30 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

This workshop explores the world of structural ice shells, inspired by Swiss engineer and designer Heinz Isler (1926-2009).  We will start by researching and designing ice/fabric forms and the methods for making them, and will then spend the second day building formwork and rigging systems.  On the final day, we will construct an outdoor landscape of frozen structures and share the work with friends and colleagues in a public exhibition.

Geared mainly toward undergraduates in courses 1 and 4 but open to all.

** Please sign up here to enroll. **

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Caitlin Mueller, Assistant Professor, 5-421, 617-324-6236, caitlinm@mit.edu

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Session 1 of 5

Jan/12

Mon

12:30PM-06:00PM

9-255

Caitlin Mueller - Assistant Professor

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Session 2 of 5

Jan/13

Tue

12:30PM-06:00PM

9-255

Caitlin Mueller - Assistant Professor

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Session 3 of 5

Jan/14

Wed

12:30PM-06:00PM

9-255

Caitlin Mueller - Assistant Professor

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Session 4 of 5

Jan/15

Thu

12:30PM-06:00PM

9-255

Caitlin Mueller - Assistant Professor

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Session 5 of 5

Jan/16

Fri

12:30PM-06:00PM

9-255 & outdoors TBD

Caitlin Mueller - Assistant Professor

Seth Avecilla, Fabrication Associate, Floor van de Velde

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/19
Limited to 12 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

Join us in MetaPiano where we will deconstruct, reconstruct, and build an entirely new sound sculpture from two vintage upright pianos to build a new sound sculpture. During four days, this hands-on class will build on students’ pre-existing skills and knowledge while introducing new fabrication skills.

Concepts and processes of sculptural form as related to sound and acoustics will be introduced through daily, short presentations and screenings. MetaPiano offers a chance to work collaboratively with students from different disciplines – artists, engineers, designers, etc. – to integrate kinetics, sculpture, and sound in an experiment that will result in a newly imagined, interactive sound sculpture.

This workshop is primarily geared towards students with art, architecture, design, or engineering backgrounds, however ALL are welcome!

The instructors:

Seth Avecilla teaches hands-on skills as Fabrication Associate at the Program in Art, Culture and Technology. His background includes mixed media sculpture, architectural-scale installations, and early stage prototyping.

South African artist Floor van de Velde creates installations and audio-visual environments that combine sound, video, electronics and light. A recent graduate from the Art, Culture, and Technology program at MIT, Floor currently teaches installation art at MassArt and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Email Seth Avecilla to register.

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Seth Avecilla, E14-251F, 617 258-0771, SETHCIM@MIT.EDU

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Jan/26

Mon

10:00AM-04:00PM

E14-251, wear shop clothes - nothing dangling, not precious

Seth Avecilla - Fabrication Associate, Floor van de Velde

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Jan/27

Tue

10:00AM-04:00PM

E14-251, wear shop clothes - nothing dangling, not precious

Seth Avecilla - Fabrication Associate, Floor van de Velde

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Jan/28

Wed

10:00AM-04:00PM

E14-251, wear shop clothes - nothing dangling, not precious

Seth Avecilla - Fabrication Associate, Floor van de Velde

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Jan/29

Thu

10:00AM-04:00PM

E14-251, wear shop clothes - nothing dangling, not precious

Seth Avecilla - Fabrication Associate, Floor van de Velde

Martin Scoppa, SUTD/MIT Postdoctoral Fellow

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/15
Limited to 12 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

In this two day workshop you will learn about measures of street connectivity and how they help us evaluate urban design proposals. Why would you want to join? Because designs that increase the quantity and quality of connections, i.e. the connectivity, of urban areas are associated with a number of potential benefits. Among them, congestion reduction by providing greater alternatives for traffic routing, and the encouraging of healthier alternatives to driving such as walking and biking by offering straighter paths to destinations. The metrics covered in this seminar could be thought of as an extension to the current connectivity standards adopted by the American Planning Association and several cities across the US. They allow us to more finely evaluate alternative design proposals, by checking connectivity variations within and between neighborhoods. So, how will you learn about this? Through short lectures and hands-on exercises using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

Please sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ADnYiM_vmmPQRdvR7vrUOZu7W0fDVwmDyZiaiXVRMb0/viewform?c=0&w=1&usp=mail_form_link

**NOTE: before the workshop begins, please download ESRI (ArcGIS) for Windows at https://ist.mit.edu/arcgis/10/win to your laptop.

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Martin Scoppa, 10-322, 617-253-2402, mdscoppa@mit.edu

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Intro and hands-on workshop

Jan/20

Tue

01:00PM-05:00PM

9-450B, Laptop required

Martin Scoppa - SUTD/MIT Postdoctoral Fellow

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Hands-on workshop

Jan/21

Wed

09:00AM-01:00PM

9-450B, Laptop required

Martin Scoppa - SUTD/MIT Postdoctoral Fellow

Lawrence Goldblatt

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/15
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Fee: $10.00 for instructor time

• Offered in "studio" format, “Socretarian”-style.
• Participants each create "future" business scenario & confront challenges faced by stockholders/managers of small-med. sized firms; presentation to panel;
• Exercises cover basic legal principles, operational procedures, ethics conflicts, and personal & professional crisis. Examples:  financing affecting the space program, or what to do having received a Summons.  The exercises are drawn from real practice, and life.

A graduate and Masters degree recipient of Courses 4 & 11, presenter has owned his own business for almost 39 years. He Trademarked the National Architect Corporation in 2009. He has represented himself at local, state, and federal civil and appellate courts, currently docketed at the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the architect/planner for Kansas City’s first National Landmark, the Mutual Musicians Foundation, which lead to the creation of the Kansas City Historic Jazz District. He was architect for the first KC conversion of a warehouse to artists’ lofts, the first conversion of a school to housing, the first buildings in the renowned Crossroads district of Kansas City. He is architect/planner and co-developer of a six acre urban wildlife sanctuary and net zero energy development.

Geared toward UG/Grad students in architecture/city planning/real estate; equally valuable for engineering

Contact LawrenceGoldblatt@nationalarchitectcorporation.com

Sponsored by The National Architect Corporation.

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Lawrence Goldblatt, lawrenceGoldblatt@nationalarchitectcorproation.com

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So You Want to Own Your Own Firm: 1 of 2

	Jan/22	Thu	09:00AM-04:45PM	9-450B - via webcam, Must bring laptop equipped with webcam
	Jan/23	Fri	09:00AM-04:45PM	9-450B - via webcam, Must bring laptop equipped with webcam

Lawrence Goldblatt

Sheila Kennedy, AIA, Professor of the Practice, Dpt. of Architecture, Trygve Wastvedt, Teaching Fellow

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/01
Limited to 12 participants
Attendance: Tuesday and Thursday sessions required, Fridays are for optional team work time
Prereq: Knowledge of Rhino 4.0, design/computation experience

This short, immersive and interdisciplinary course teaches key principles of design, zero waste production and digital fabrication through focused exploration of formal opportunities provided by kerfing--selective, subtractive cuts. In the traditional kerfing process, practiced in the design of medieval wood musical instruments, flat boards and wood sheets are bent into curved forms by selectively extracting material from one side. Today, computation and parametric constraints may be applied to this process to create curved, structural beams or “bents” with very little material waste.

The MIT Soft Rocker, an outdoor rocking lounge, will be the departure point for a short, two-week design problem. Teams of two students will imagine, design, and fabricate multi-curved chassis forms for the Soft Rocker that are capable of supporting the weight of the team. As simple as the Soft Rocker seems, it embodies sophisticated design and structural challenges of centroidal stasis, balance, dynamic loading, and the definition of interdisciplinary principles of elegance in design, structure, and fabrication. Students will learn design and fabrication concepts with the potential to greatly expand the formal range, design applications and mass-customization of contemporary low-carbon wood construction. The class will utilize a Techno- Isel CNC router, located at the KVA Matx studio, where all necessary supplies, soft wood materials and tools will be provided. Join us!

Sponsor(s): MIT-SUTD Collaboration, Architecture
Contact: Sheila Kennedy, 10-411M, (617) 324-6095, sheilak@mit.edu

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	Jan/06	Tue	01:00PM-05:00PM	KVA - 10 Farnham St., bring laptop loaded with Rhino 4.0
	Jan/08	Thu	01:00PM-05:00PM	KVA - 10 Farnham St.
	Jan/09	Fri	01:00PM-05:00PM	KVA - 10 Farnham St.
	Jan/13	Tue	01:00PM-05:00PM	KVA - 10 Farnham St.
	Jan/15	Thu	01:00PM-05:00PM	KVA - 10 Farnham St.
	Jan/16	Fri	01:00PM-05:00PM	KVA - 10 Farnham St.

Tuesday and Thursday sessions are required. 

Friday sessions are optional/flexible team work time.

All classes are located at KVA Matx Studio at 10 Farnham St., Boston, MA 02109

Please bring laptop loaded with Rhino 4.0

Reinhard Goethert, Professor

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/12
Limited to 12 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

This workshop will challenge participants to brainstorm housing that can be expanded by families as they desire, when they desire, in a pay-as-go affordable approach. Two quick sketch designs are envisioned:  one a more ‘practical’ solution and one a sketch of ‘fantasy’ dreams. 

A former government project built in 1969 on the hillsides of Medellin, Colombia, will provide the reference base.  The initial 1-story complete house was modified by the families to be unrecognizable today — none of the original houses remain, but all have been expanded to 3-5 stories. See our drone flyover of the project today (2014) to see the growth:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx97p0N1uWo). Compare what you see with handouts of the original design and photographs from 1969.

Does it make sense to provide complete houses when they will be modified anyway? What is the appropriate minimum that the government should provide to low-income families which can be expanded toward a complete, ‘standard’ house?

For background information on incremental housing, see: http://web.mit.edu/incrementalhousing  

Sign-up here!

Sponsor(s): Architecture
Contact: Reinhard Goethert, 10-322, rkg@mit.edu

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	Jan/15	Thu	01:00PM-05:00PM	9-450B
	Jan/16	Fri	01:00PM-05:00PM	9-450B

Abigail Anderson - Architecture, UROP, Reinhard Goethert - Professor